The biosynthetic pathway of lignin in plants have been actively investigated recently by tracer experiments using C
14-labelled compounds. There can be no doubt that lignin is a product of shikimic acid pathway, “Davis' scheme of aromatic amino acid biosyntheses”. The probable intervation of prephenic acid in lignin biosyntheses discuses from the interesting results on the formation of phenylpropane derivatives, such as phenylalanine, tyrosine, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, synapic acid, caffeic acid and other compounds from shikimic acid in the plant tissues.
The intermediates, such as ferulic acid derivatives, which may be formed from phenylpyruvic acid in the tissues, may be reduced to primary building stones of the type of coniferyl alcohol.
In the systematic experiments on the lignin biosyntheses in which
p-coumaric alcohols and acids are administered, either by implantation or by imbibition, these compounds were effectively converted to lignin. In this reaction, hydrogen is abstracted from the phenolic hydroxyl group by the action of a dehydrogenation enzyme, such as lactase or peroxidase, with the formation of a radical which can react in various mesomeric forms. Accoding to Freudenberg, the formation of lignin from primary building stones take place
via secondary building stones of dimeric phenylpropane derivatives, and then lignin must be considered to be a product formed by the polymerization of dehydrogenated coniferyl alcohol radicals and the dehydrogenation products of the secondary alcohol stones,
via radicals, each of which can exist in various mesomeric forms, in possible ways.
A aspect on the biosyntheses of lignin in plants have now reached the stage where hypothesis about biochemical pathway obtained by the tracer investigations have to be confirmed by series of biochemical reactions based on the enzyme system of lignin formation. Few investigators found some enzyme, such as tyrase and phenylalanane, in plants. One of many questions on the chemical structures of lignin and dehydrogenation polymers formed from coniferyl alcohol derivatives is a problem on the stereo-chemical structures of these compounds.
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